Businesses and consumers use a wide variety of fixed and mobile wireless terminals, including cell phones, pagers, Personal Communication Services (PCS) systems, and fixed wireless access devices (i.e., vending machine with cellular capability). Wireless service providers create new markets for wireless devices and expand existing markets by making wireless devices and services cheaper and more reliable. Wireless service providers accomplish this, in part, by implementing new services, including digital data services that provide web browsing and e-mail capabilities.
Providing a fast call set-up is a critical requirement of many digital services. A fast call set-up also improves the quality of conventional voice services. Code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless network use a control channel parameter called the synchronization identifier (SYNC_ID) to provide fast call set-up operations. The SYNC_ID parameter is a variable length, signature code generated from the Service Configuration (SCR) parameter and the Non-Negotiable Service Configuration (NNSCR) parameter.
A base station of the wireless network specifies the length of the SYNC_ID parameter to a mobile station (e.g., a cell phone or other wireless access terminal). The SYNC_ID parameter defines certain operating parameters, such as modulation scheme (e.g., BPSK, QPSK, 16 QAM), coding rate, and the like. CDMA networks use the SYNC_ID parameter to reduce the negotiation time between the mobile station and the base station during a call set-up operation. Without the SYNC_ID parameter, a call set-up procedure may require anywhere from an extra few hundred milliseconds up to several extra seconds.
However, the generation of signature codes is not standardized among base station vendors. Each base station vendor generates its own signature code. Thus, it is possible for two identical signature codes from two different vendors to map to two different configurations.
The current approach to using the SYNC_ID parameter is problematic. As noted, the SYNC_ID parameter is a variable-length signature code generated using the SCR parameter and the NNSCR parameter. In conventional wireless networks, the scope of the SYNC_ID parameter is limited to the System Identifier (SID) or Network Identifier (NID) boundary. In other words, the value of the SYNC_ID parameter remains the same everywhere within the SID-NID boundary. Since the granularity of the SYNC_ID parameter is no finer than the SID-NID boundary, the usefulness of the SYNC_ID parameter is limited.
For example, a wireless network operator frequently uses the same base station controller (BSC) to serve both a downtown area and a rural area. However, the wireless network operator might choose to deploy data packet services in one configuration in the downtown area and in a very different configuration in the rural area. Using a common SYNC_ID parameter forces the wireless network operator to use the common BSC configuration. Also, there are situations in which two different packet control function (PCF) zones may lie within the same SID-NID boundary. This requires two different SYNC_ID parameters within the SID-NID region.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for improved wireless networks and improved wireless terminals for accessing the wireless networks. In particular, there is a need for CDMA2000 wireless network base stations and wireless mobile stations that use a SYNC_ID parameter that does not limit the BSC configuration of the wireless network.